If you’re starting a business and planning for it to have a website, just creating one and leaving it be isn’t enough to get you any traction online. That’s where SEO comes in.
SEO is a process for optimizing your website and its content so that you can get your website to the top of the search results.
We spoke to Jesse Tutt, the founder of Guru SEO Services, a digital marketing agency that offers just that — helping your website rank above its online competitors.
Now, the work they do is far from simple, and they wouldn’t be able to do it without some help to stay organized.
This is where Plaky comes in.
Plaky helped Guru SEO Services organize their clients, tasks, project workflow, and project collaboration.
To explain everything further, Jesse talked to us about:
- Who Guru SEO Services are and how they were founded,
- What an average day at work looks like for the Guru SEO Services team,
- How he discovered Plaky,
- How he and his team use Plaky to improve their workflow,
- What his favorite Plaky features are, and
- Who he would recommend Plaky to.
Let’s dive in for the details.
Table of Contents
About Guru SEO Services
Guru SEO Services was founded in 2020 and has been helping businesses grow their online presence through SEO and web optimization ever since. Despite their name, they also offer a wide range of digital marketing services beyond just SEO:
“The goal of Guru SEO Services is to provide comprehensive marketing, web, SEO, and advertising services to its clients and help them reach their full potential. Based in Red Deer, Alberta, the company offers web development and design, technical SEO auditing, Google My Business, and content development.”
Now, let’s get into the details of how Guru SEO Services came to be.
Guru SEO Services’ beginnings
Jesse tinkered with many different things before ending up in SEO and web design:
“As a serial entrepreneur, the idea for Guru SEO Services came about very organically. I started with a software development company, later moving on to a virtual tour company and a mattress company.”
Yet, through diversifying so much, he learned the craft he needed to become proficient in SEO:
“By working in these different industries and on various projects, the idea for Guru SEO progressed naturally, culminating in the company’s founding in December 2020.”
It didn’t take long until they started seeing amazing results:
“Over time, our team has grown — as has our client list, and the list of services we provide.”
Today, Guru SEO Services’ team prides themselves on achieving amazing results in almost every industry they cover, in over 20 countries.
Guru SEO Services team
As Jesse explains, the team behind Guru SEO Services is small and dispersed:
“Currently, we have a full-time, in-house team of developers, marketers, link-building experts, and content developers. Our team of eight-strong all work remotely as they’re located all over the world.”
Remote work also allows them to have outside collaborators:
“We also have several on-call freelancing experts that occasionally assist us on some projects.”
Guru SEO Services’ average day at work
Communication is essential in project management, so Jesse’s team has a systematic approach to it.
“Each day, everyone in the team provides a short update on what they’re working on that day. We have two meetings per week where we discuss what has been done, and potential barriers, and go over the Plaky boards to see what’s left.”
For remote teams, it’s very important to have a remote work tool — like Plaky — to help them keep everything in one place.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you want to learn more about the importance of communication for project teams, check out this guide:
How Guru SEO Services discovered Plaky
Plaky is not Jesse’s first run-in with project management software. As he tells us, he and his team used 2 other tools before discovering Plaky.
“Prior to using Plaky, we tried out both Trello and Monday, both of which didn’t work for us in the long run.”
Jesse shared what it was about these tools that bothered him.
“Neither platform had the features we needed on their Basic plans — which always meant upgrading and getting bigger plans.”
Jesse states that the reason for constantly switching plans arose from their company’s growth.
“As our organization grew, keeping up with constant changes and plans became too time-consuming and impractical. Plaky has helped keep all of our projects, tasks, and projections in one place.”
No one would like to see their organization’s growth as a hindrance — so Guru SEO Services realized the solution to their challenges would be a PM tool that you can easily use while scaling. After struggling with other PM tools, they came across Plaky and decided to give it a go.
“One of our developers actually learned about Plaky and recommended it because she felt it would be the best platform for an organization of our size. After doing due diligence, I discovered that all of Plaky’s features line up with how we structure our work and what we require for our in-house organization.”
What ultimately tipped the scale in Plaky’s favor was the fact that the app is, in Jesse’s words, “similar to Monday — and without bloatware.”
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you want to see what it is that makes Plaky a good alternative to the software that Guru SEO Services previously used, check out these pages:
How Plaky helps Guru SEO Services organize their work
Any completely remote organization understands the importance of a great PM tool, and Guru SEO Services is no different. After discovering Plaky, they have been nothing but satisfied:
“We have been using Plaky since October 2022, and the benefits we’ve seen thus far have been incredible.”
So, what is it about Plaky that makes it so useful to Jesse’s team? What are the specific benefits they’ve found?
Benefit #1: Plaky allows for easy tracking of daily tasks
For remote teams who manage multiple projects at once, it’s useful to have insight into their tasks and progress tracking — all in one place.
As Jesse tells us, Plaky has helped Guru SEO Services better organize their tasks:
“Firstly, I have great insight into what my team does on a daily basis, what they’re working on, and how each project is progressing.”
Jesse mentions that they found many board functionalities useful, but points out the filter option as most valuable to his team.
Benefit #2: Plaky helps with long-term progress tracking
Besides giving Jesse and his team insight into their daily project activities, Plaky also helps them see the bigger picture.
“On a more long-term basis, we can see what services we’ve provided for each client, how we’ve progressed, and how they progress with us.”
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
Managing clients can be confusing, so check out this page to see how Plaky helps with client management:
Guru SEO Services’ favorite Plaky features
Plaky has helped Jesse’s team track their progress and organize their work more efficiently, and Jesse reveals the feature that was especially useful for them:
“One of the standout features for me was the Board creation and organization. It allows for easier project management and gives everyone a great insight into the entire process.”
As Jesse mentions, they create a Plaky board for each new client, making it easy to track tasks for that specific client. This also means that, in the long term, every task that was completed for that individual will be stored in the same place.
“We use task creation and progress tracking on a daily basis. When we get a new client, we create a board and assign tasks based on the service we’re providing for them. One of the best things about Plaky is that we have everything posted clearly, including status, due dates, labels, and additional commentary.”
As Jesse further highlights, every task can have columns that help track its essential information.
Moreover, when you need to track progress and create tasks daily, you need a PM tool that you can use to see everything clearly and quickly. Jesse explains that here lies one of Plaky’s strengths — letting you get a clear overview of your board.
Who would Guru SEO Services recommend Plaky to?
Working in digital marketing means Jesse has plenty of interactions with small and medium-sized businesses. With insight into their methods of work, Jesse says he is always happy to recommend Plaky to them:
“Most of our clients and partners have small to medium-sized companies themselves. Sometimes, they’re on the lookout for better task management systems and ask us for advice — which is when I recommend Plaky.”
Final thoughts: Improve remote teams’ efficiency by using the right PM tool
As he mentioned previously, Jesse’s team is completely remote — they also handle multiple projects for a large number of clients.
Keeping track of so many variables is difficult — and as a remote team, you need to rely on software that will keep all relevant task information organized.
This is where Jesse found the right PM tool for them — in Plaky. So, take inspiration from Jesse, and streamline your project workflow by finding the right PM tool for you.
Free project management software
If you relate to this customer story — try Plaky yourself.
